A four-hour work stoppage is underway by nurses at the emergency department at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick in protest at over-crowding in the unit.
It is the third such protest action in the past fortnight. The nurses are members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and Siptu.
Siptu Mid-West nursing organiser Jim McGrath said that staff were undertaking the planned third work stoppage “to finally make management respond to the deteriorating situation in the emergency department due to underfunding, patient overcrowding and a shortage of nursing staff, all of which has been exacerbated by the hospital reconfiguration programme”.
Paul Bell, divisional head of Siptu, said nurses in emergency departments across the country were under severe pressure and he could not rule out further industrial action at other hospitals.
Minister for Health James Reilly has strongly criticised the industrial action and suggested last week it could have placed patients at risk. He said the action was “unsafe, unsound and unwarranted”. He indicated nurses were in breach of the Croke Park agreement.
Talks have taken place at the Labour Relations Commission in an effort to resolve the row but no breakthrough has been achieved so far.